ProfesserAhnka
umbrascitor
Randwulf
If you squint hard enough, you can almost see a tiny bit of effort for her character design.
Doesn't take any squinting to see the effort. If her design were any more elaborate, it would be overdone.
Earthrealm characters -- especially good guys -- are always facing an uphill battle with these things. Nearly all of the most fervently requested characters are inhuman, and the ones who look human at least get to dress like Outworlders. If my time on this forum has taught me anything, it's that when most people talk about an "interesting character design," what they actually mean is "looks like a monster" or "dresses like an Outworlder."
Some folks just openly admit that they're biased against Earthrealmers in Mortal Kombat. I suspect that Jacqui and Cassie would catch a lot less flak for having a similar costume design and coming from the same background if they weren't visibly human -- like Sektor and Cyrax.
Maybe they need to give Jacqui some badass tattoos. It's not much, but what else are you going to do to make a boring dumb human stand out? Put a hat on it?
Shit, Kung Jin had one of the most characteristic human designs in MK history, and people still hated it.
I think that's a vast assumption that completely shuts out other valid opinions. Not every one who dislikes Cassie's and Jacqui's outfits just hate Earthrealmers. Sounds like you're boiling it down to such a straight and narrow point of view just so you can dismiss it.
I LOVED Cassie's default look in MKX and thought her costume was pretty cool and that was VERY in line with her character, her background, and her realm. However, I hate her look in this game. It's not because "OMGZ MOAR MONSTERS!!1111"- I just think it's disappointing.
Of course there are exceptions to the general pattern. I never said there weren't. I'm not speaking to the exceptions. I'm speaking to what appears, from my vantage point, to be the prevailing mindset that "most" complaints about Jacqui and Cassie (or Special Forces in general, or humans in general) seem to boil down to.
If you can argue against my statement that the vast majority of hotly desired characters are either inhuman or dressed like an Outworlder, I'll take your point. If you can argue against my statement that numerous people have outright said something along the lines of "humans are boring," I'll take your point.
Skarlet got into the roster thanks to popular demand -- based on an uninspired costume design, no personality aside from being a little porn-y, and a backstory that's basically just "blood Ermac with less supporting history." I don't see how she had much going for her besides being a weird Outworld thing with blood powers -- but that was enough. Plenty of characters get by with just having one single standout gimmick, but apparently having gun hands isn't enough of a gimmick to make Jacqui interesting for a lot of people. I'm having a tough time figuring out why that is unless I take into account all the people who just think Special Forces or humans in general are just innately boring.
I'm not even saying this as a Jacqui fan myself. I think her designs have been fine; not spectacular, but appropriate. Her gimmick is fine, though as I've said elsewhere, I'd feel better if they fed all the drones and gadgety things her way instead of giving them to Sonya and now Cassie. (P lease don't homogenize those two, NRS!) Still, Jacqui's moves are just as interesting as some other more popular characters' moves. She just feels a little hollow personality-wise, the same way Jade did for me until now. Her only role so far has been to fill in the blank as "Cassie's friend" and she didn't have much else to contribute -- again, reminiscent of Jade, being second to Kitana. The visual design isn't the place to fix that, and I have no problem dismissing a claim that her design is low-effort when she actually looks pretty cool for a human. So there's my diversity-of-opinion for you if you need it, Professer.
